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VRwave 0.9
==========
VRwave and pw software is Copyright (c) 1997 by the Institute for
Information Processing and Computer Supported New Media (IICM), Graz
University of Technology, Austria. See the files COPYRIGHT and LICENCE
for details of VRwave copyright and licence agreement.
About VRwave
------------
VRwave is a VRML 2.0 browser being developed at the IICM (Institute
for Information Processing and Computer Supported New Media), Graz
University of Technology, Austria, by the team who brought you the
VRweb VRML 1.0 browser.
To our knowledge, VRwave is the only VRML 2.0 browser available in
complete source code, and requiring no commercial packages to run.
The new name VRwave is intended to distinguish the VRML 2.0 browser
written largely in Java from VRweb (the VRML 1.0 browser written in
C++). In terms of look and feel, VRwave is a direct successor to
VRweb.
VRwave is available both in full source code and as a binary
release. You may freely use the software for non-commercial and
internal use. You may freely distribute the software unchanged to
third parties. Distribution of derivative work (modified versions) and
commercial use of the software requires prior permission and/or a
licence from IICM. See the file LICENCE in the distribution for full
details.
VRwave is written largely in Java (parsing, scene graph management,
and program logic). For performance reasons, rendering is performed
via OpenGL or the Mesa workalike in native code. Current rendering
support in VRwave is limited to the static display of scenes
(wireframe, hidden line, flat/smooth shading, texturing).
For parsing, VRwave makes use of the VRML 2.0 parser library `pw',
which is separately available under the GNU LGPL, so as to make it
freely usable also in other works. `pw' is pure Java code and in no
way restricted to particular platforms. (For your convenience, pw 1.1
is already included in the vrwave download files.)
More information is available at the VRwave home page:
http://www.iicm.edu/vrwave
Supported Platforms
-------------------
You need the Java JDK, version 1.0.2 or 1.1.x, in order to run the
Java classes or to compile the Java source files. Java bytecode
generated with different JDK versions is compatible, however shared
libs built from native code are generally not.
For using the netscape plugin version of VRwave, you do not need a
separate JDK (VRwave will run under netscape's Java machine), but you
must ensure to use native code compiled with JDK 1.0.2.
Rendering commands and the interface to the graphics library (see
below) are implemented in native (C) code. Precompiled rendering
libraries are currently available for the following platforms:
SGI, Sun Solaris, Dec Alpha, HP-UX, Linux/ELF.
Availability of a VRwave port to Windows 95/NT is scheduled for
mid October 1997.
VRwave renders either via OpenGL (supporting full HW acceleration, if
available) or via the workalike 3D graphics library Mesa. The Mesa
version of VRwave renders in software; it neither needs nor benefits
from special graphics hardware and runs on standard X11 workstations
and terminals.
A port to Power Mac is under way at NCSA.
Graphics Libraries
------------------
OpenGL (http://www.sgi.com/Technology/openGL/) comes with SGI
machines, is part of the Windows NT operating system, and is available
for numerous other machines as well, e.g. for Sun/Solaris machines or
for Dec Alpha (as part of the Open3D package). OpenGL libraries for
Windows 95 can be downloaded from
ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/Softlib/MSFILES/OGLFIX.EXE.
By use of native code (no copying into Java bitmaps etc.) to embed the
OpenGL window in a portable Java GUI, you get full hardware
acceleration from OpenGL (if supported on your system).
Mesa is a 3D graphics library (by brianp@ssec.wisc.edu) with an API
very close to the one of OpenGL, working on any Unix/X11 display. Mesa
is distributed under GNU LGPL, downloadable from
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~brianp/Mesa.html. Mesa neither needs nor
benefits from any special graphics harware.
The binary distribution contains libraries linked against OpenGL for
Windows 95/NT (when ready for release), SGI and Dec Alpha machines,
and with Mesa for all supported Unix platforms.
If you want to run VRwave on other architectures or to use OpenGL on
other platforms (e.g. Sun, HPUX, Linux) or a different OpenGL version
(e.g. SGI's OpenGL for Windows or 3DFX/GLIDE accelerated Mesa on
Linux), please download the source code. It should be fairly easy to
compile it for your configuration.
Binary Distribution - Windows version
-------------------------------------
scheduled for mid October 1997.
Binary Distribution - Unix/X11 version
--------------------------------------
VRwave class files, scripts, and documentation files are available as
ftp://ftp.iicm.edu/pub/VRwave/
vrwave-0.9/UNIX/Common-VRwave-0.9-Unix.tar.gz
Decompress and untar it with the command:
gzip -cd Common-VRwave-0.9-Unix.tar.gz | tar xvf -
GNU tar users just need to call tar xzvf FILENAME.
The archive contains the Java classes in classes/vrwave.zip (readable
by Java, do *not* unzip this file).
*Additionally* you have to download the shared libraries (built from
native code) for your platform(s), which are also found in directory
ftp://ftp.iicm.edu/pub/VRwave/vrwave-0.9/UNIX/
cd into directory vrwave-0.9 (which was created on unpacking the
common files) and unpack the library file(s) like above.
They are also in .tar.gz format, and contain VRwave native code as
lib/$CPU/libgejc.so. For JDK 1.0.2 library versions there is also a
*beta* version of a netscape 3.x plugin included as file
plugin/$SYS/npvrwave.so. The plugin wrapper around VRwave is needed to
view VRML scenes EMBEDded into HTML for Java-EAI.
The file INSTALLATION in the binary distribution provides further
installation ($VRWAVE_HOME, $CPU, $SYS) and usage instructions. The
HTML pages in subdir help contain instructions for integration of
VRwave with your webbrowser and preliminary online help pages.
Examples and EAI test files can be found in directories examples and
eaitest.
You should need no further libraries. In particular, the Mesa code is
linked into the shared VRwave library (Mesa 2.4 for VRwave 0.9).
Source Code Distribution
------------------------
The VRwave source code contains all Java source files and the source
files for the native code. Download
ftp://ftp.iicm.edu/pub/VRwave/vrwave-0.8/VRwave-0.8-src.tar.gz
and unpack it with the command
gzip -cd VRwave-0.8-src.tar.gz | tar xvf -
See the file BUILDING (contained in the archive) for further
instructions.
When the Windows version is ready, there will be instructions and/or a
Visual C++ project file for compilation under Windows 95/NT.
The source code distribution also contains the class documentation
files generated with javadoc (HTML files).
If you use the Mesa version, please download and compile Mesa
separately from ftp://iris.ssec.wisc.edu/pub/Mesa. (See
http://www.ssec.wisc.edu/~brianp/Mesa.html for mirror sites.)
Usage
-----
A preliminary online help for VRwave is part of the binary
distribution, consisting of installation instructions and an overview
of mouse bindings for navigation/interaction.
If you have been familiar with VRweb (the VRML 1.0 predecessor of
VRwave) you should have no great difficulties using VRwave. If you are
new to VRweb/VRwave you may want to skim the VRweb user guide at
http://www.iicm.edu/vrweb/help.
Bug Reports, Feedback
---------------------
Please note that VRwave is unsupported software, but feedback is very
welcome. You may use the mail-address:
vrwave-bugs@iicm.edu
for any bug reports. Please give specific platform information
(program version, OpenGL/Mesa, JDK version, system name (uname -a)).
For further information about the VRwave project, send mail to
vrwave-info@iicm.edu
Note however that we often receive more mails than we can possibly
answer.
For the time being, the VRweb mailing list is an appropriate
place for users of VRwave to place questions or get feedback.
See http://www.iicm.edu/vrwave/release/feedback.html for information
on subscribing to the VRweb mailing list.
Authors, Acknowledgements
-------------------------
[please make use of the bug reports/information mail addresses listed
above, instead of sending mail to individual team members, thanks.]
VRwave project leader: Keith Andrews <kandrews@iicm.edu>
Lead programmer, X11: Michael Pichler <mpi@iicm.edu>
GUI widgets, behavior: Andreas Pesendorfer <apesen@iicm.edu>
Rendering, Java-EAI: Karl Heinz Wagenbrunn <kwagen@iicm.edu>
Windows port: Josef Wolte <jwolte@iicm.edu>
Parser basics: Karin Roschker
Power Mac port: Marcus R. Popetz, NCSA (underway)
We acknowledge the work of a programming group around Mario Juric,
<majuric@srcm1.zems.fer.hr>, who provided a Java port of the QvLib
VRML 1.0 parser.
Keith Andrews,
Michael Pichler, Sep 30, 1997
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